Brume: The Dragon Awakens and Dr. Zeus

Pelissier, Jerome and Hinder, Carine. Brume: The Dragon Awakens

September 30, 2025 by Hippo Park

Copy provided by the publisher

Brume lives in a charming village with her adoptive, father, a fisherman. He found her in the foggy forest, hence her name. Brume wants to be a witch and protect the village, but has some anger issues and when a woman bumps into her, casts a spell to turn the woman into a pig. This isn't successful, but a pig comes around the corner, and Brume assumes he is the result of her handiwork. She names him Hubert and takes him home. The pig isn't too happy, but once fed some chocolate croissants, is happy to go along with Brume's adventures. Her father gives her a spell book that he found with her, and she tries her best to learn the spells but succeeds only in casting the area into a dense fog. Along with her friend, Hugo, she tries to undo her work and finds that there is a dragon in the area who is endangering her village. Will the three would be Rescuers be able to save the village?

Brume is a typical, impulsive child who is determined to be a witch no matter how many people tell her this is unlikely. While her father tells her this isn't possible, he also provides her with a hat, cloak, and wand, and gives her plenty of freedom to try to make magic happen. My sympathies went more to the poor pig, occasionally referred to as Bacon Bit, who was highjacked by Brume but stays with her and ends up being something of a magician himself! 

This was a cute, hardbound graphic novel that is the size of a small picture book. While it seems aimed at younger readers, the text is fairly small. The artwork is attractive, and the artists' notes at the end give another interesting layer to the tale. There are three volumes to this series that have been published in French, so I imagine we will be seeing additions to this tale in the US soon. 

 Tebbets, Chris. Dr. Zeus

January 26, 2026 by jimmy patterson

E ARC provided by Netgalley

Nick Andino's relatively quiet life in Athens, Ohio is disrupted when Zeus and Hermes arrive in a Winnebago and claim that he has to fulfill a prophecy and save not only himself but his entire family line from being destroyed. Details are a bit sketchy, but since Nick's life isn't going too well, he figures he might as well investigate. In the real world, his father has passed away, and hid grandfather Pop-Pop has moved from San Diego to help out at the restaurant his father started, Dino's Dine-In. His mother owes $18,000 in back rent to bully Orson's family, so he constantly has to cater to his nemesis. On top of that, he is going to stop home schooling with Pop-Pop and start Athens Middle School in the fall. Why not get whisked off to ancient Greece and battle a Cyclops who looks suspiciously like Orson? Zeus and Hermes are invested in Nick's attention to his family legacy, and pop him back without much warning. In between shifts at the diner, Nick finds himself working with Margarita to solve a riddle involving an ogre, flower, apple, and a helm that leads him to an island called the Stadium of the Gods. In Ohio's Athens, Hermes facilitates a meeting with Nick's crush, Daisy, and he confides in her about his odd adventures. He needs a lot of help; he is starting to fade, which Hermes tells him is a definite sign of "destinitis". There are lots of adventures in Greeze, including meeting Proteus, trying to get a golden apple, and tangling with Eris, the goddess of Discord. In the end, he manages to come through to save his family's destiny, although his mother loses the restaurant. Pop-Pop decides to stay around, and Zeus and Hermes, in a real deus ex machina move, save the day by gifting the Andino's a Gyro Hero food truck. The solid gold apple in Nick's pocket also helps the family have the capital to move forward. 

This was a fun, mythology based romp from the popular Patterson franchise, and the cover is great. There hasn't been much interest in mythology books for a few years now; Riordan's Percy Jackson series is twenty years old. I found myself being much more invested in Nick's family life in Athens, and would have been quite happy to find out how he did going into middle school, hanging out with Daisy, and working on the food truck. As a former Latin teacher, I still have a TON of mythology based books like Shipton's The Pig Scrolls, Yolen's Young Heroes series, Childs' Oh. My. Gods. Calonita's Zero to Hero and Go the Distance, McCaughrean's that no longer circulate, so I may not purchase this title, but take a look if you need some fresh takes on ancient Greece.